II 

118TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. 5239 

To require the Secretary of Defense to manage risks relating to military 

use of artificial intelligence, and for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

SEPTEMBER 25, 2024 

Mr. WELCH introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred 

to the Committee on Armed Services 

A BILL 

To require the Secretary of Defense to manage risks relating 

to military use of artificial intelligence, and for other 

purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Artificial Intelligence 

5 Weapon Accountability and Risk Evaluation Act of 2024’’ 

6 or the ‘‘AWARE Act of 2024’’. 

7 SEC. 2. MANAGING RISKS RELATING TO MILITARY USE OF 

8 ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE. 

9 (a) LEDGER OF USE AND DEPLOYMENT.— 


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1 (1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than one year 

2 after the date of the enactment of this Act the Sec3 retary of Defense shall commence creating, and not 

4 later than three years after the date of the enact5 ment of this Act the Secretary shall complete cre6 ating, a ledger of all uses by the Department of De7 fense of covered systems. 

8 (2) REQUIREMENTS.—The Secretary shall en9 sure that the ledger created pursuant to paragraph 

10 (1)— 

11 (A) is a structured, indexed database; and 

12 (B) maintained and updated on a regular 

13 basis to ensure that the ledger is accurate. 

14 (b) RISK ASSESSMENT PROCESS.— 

15 (1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than three years 

16 after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Sec17 retary shall establish a risk assessment process that 

18 holistically evaluates each unique implementation by 

19 the Department of a covered system included in the 

20 ledger required by subsection (a). 

21 (2) ELEMENTS.— 

22 (A) IN GENERAL.—The process required 

23 by paragraph (1) shall, at a minimum, cover 

24 matters relating to the following: 

25 (i) Dependability. 


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1 (ii) Cybersecurity. 

2 (iii) Privacy. 

3 (iv) Bias. 

4 (v) Bias towards escalation. 

5 (vi) Deployment span. 

6 (vii) Risk of civilian harm. 

7 (B) BIAS TOWARDS ESCALATION.—For 

8 purposes of subparagraph (A)(v), the process 

9 shall cover the intent of the system and assess 

10 for any bias relating to whether the technology 

11 ever escalates or deescalates conflict situations. 

12 (C) DEPLOYMENT SPAN.—For purposes of 

13 subparagraph (A)(vi), the process shall address 

14 changes in risk levels based on whether covered 

15 systems are deployed singularly or in clusters or 

16 swarms. 

17 (3) ANNUAL ASSESSMENTS.—The Secretary 

18 shall ensure that the process required by paragraph 

19 (1) requires reevaluation of each covered system in20 cluded in the ledger required by subsection (a)— 

21 (A) not less frequently than annually; and 

22 (B) whenever— 

23 (i) the underlying foundation artificial 

24 intelligence model receives an update; 


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1 (ii) the Department procures any cov2 ered system that has not previously been 

3 evaluated by the process; and 

4 (iii) a new weapons review of a cov5 ered system is conducted by the Depart6 ment. 

7 (c) ANNOTATIONS REGARDING EXPORTS.—The Sec8 retary shall annotate in the ledger required by subsection 

9 (a) when— 

10 (1) a covered system developed or owned by the 

11 Department is shared with a foreign country, ex12 ported to a foreign country, or used by any foreign 

13 person or government; and 

14 (2) such sharing, exporting, or use presents ad15 ditional risk covered by the risk assessment process 

16 required by subsection (b). 

17 (d) PROGRESS REPORTS TO CONGRESS.—Not later 

18 than one year after the date of the enactment of this Act 

19 and not less frequently once each year thereafter until the 

20 date that is three years after the date of the enactment 

21 of this Act, the Secretary shall submit to Congress a re22 port on the progress of the Secretary in carrying out this 

23 Act. 

24 (e) ANNUAL SUBMISSIONS TO CONGRESS.— 


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1 (1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than three years 

2 after the date of the enactment of this Act and not 

3 less frequently than once each year thereafter, the 

4 Secretary shall submit to Congress an annual sub5 mission that includes the following: 

6 (A) The ledger required by subsection (a). 

7 (B) An annual report on the findings of 

8 the Secretary with respect to the risk assess9 ments conducted, in the year covered by the an10 nual submission, pursuant to the risk assess11 ment process established under subsection (b). 

12 (C) The annotations made under sub13 section (c) during the year covered by the an14 nual submission. 

15 (2) FORM.—Each submission under paragraph 

16 (1) shall be, to the fullest extent possible, in unclas17 sified form, but may include a classified annex to the 

18 degree the Secretary considers necessary. 

19 (3) PUBLIC AVAILABILITY.—The Secretary 

20 shall make available to the public the unclassified 

21 portion of each annual submission under paragraph 

22 (1). 

23 (f) SENSE OF CONGRESS.—It is the sense of Con24 gress that the ledger created pursuant to subsection (a)(1) 

25 will reflect strong and continuing commitment of the DeVerDate Sep 11 2014 02:04 Oct 11, 2024 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S5239.IS S5239

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1 partment of Defense to being a transparent global leader 

2 in establishing responsible policies regarding military uses 

3 of artificial intelligence-enabled weapons, targeting, and 

4 decision support systems. 

5 (g) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in this sec6 tion shall be construed to reduce any existing privacy, 

7 safety, or security protections or guardrails in effect before 

8 the date of the enactment of this Act. 

9 (h) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 

10 (1) The term ‘‘artificial intelligence’’ has the 

11 meaning given such term in section 5002 of the Na12 tional Artificial Intelligence Initiative Act of 2020 

13 (15 U.S.C. 9401). 

14 (2) The term ‘‘covered system’’ includes the fol15 lowing systems that are enabled by artificial intel16 ligence: 

17 (A) A weapon system. 

18 (B) A targeting system. 

19 (C) A decision support system that aids a 

20 system described in subparagraph (A) or (B). 

Æ 


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